The central hall
19th-century museum architecture in its original form.
Erik Zachte โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Hyaenidae โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Andries Jager โ Public domain ยท Andries Jager โ Public domain
The oldest zoo in the Netherlands, founded in 1838, and a complex rather than just a zoo: the zoo itself, a large aquarium, a planetarium, the Micropia museum of microorganisms and the Groote Museum. The grounds are in the quiet Plantage district with mature trees, and the tickets are layered โ check what yours covers before buying, as Micropia is sometimes separate.
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The Groote Museum is an 1855 building inside the ARTIS zoo, built originally as a natural history museum, then closed to the public at the start of the twentieth century and shut for more than a hundred years โ until it reopened in 2022 after a long restoration. The building itself is a reason to come: a high central hall with iron columns, a glass roof and galleried stairs, in the manner of the great nineteenth-century museums, returned to its original state. The content is unlike what it once held: not a collection of taxidermy but an exhibition on the relationship between humans and the rest of life on earth โ breathing, movement, reproduction and feeding, presented as functions humans share with animals and plants rather than as things that set them apart. The approach is contemplative rather than informational, unfamiliar and deliberately so. The ARTIS ticket normally includes it, making it a natural addition to a day at the zoo.
19th-century museum architecture in its original form.
What humans hold in common with animals and plants.
Plantage Kerklaan 38, 1018 Amsterdam